


Out of the Ashes

by rainydayadvocate



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Chocolate Box Exchange 2018, Gen, Mentioned Darth Vader, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 21:32:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13644846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainydayadvocate/pseuds/rainydayadvocate
Summary: On a night that should be full of celebration, Luke disappears. Not wanting him to wander off too far, Han goes out looking for him and finds him among the embers of a burned funeral platform. Luke fills in some fairly large gaps for Han, and surprisingly, Han fills in a few gaps for Luke.





	Out of the Ashes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ancslove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ancslove/gifts).



The evening of celebrations started to wear down, and Han realized that he had lost track of both Luke and Leia, engrossed in stories and grava wine with Lando. He'd found Leia first, but she requested time alone and, unlike the night before, he was full of alcohol and not in the mood to argue. Besides, it didn't strike him like the same kind of "need to be alone for a little while." This time he believed her and left her to her thoughts.

Chewie said Luke left the treehouses, so Han climbed down the precarious stairs to look around. A few others had also returned to the ground to celebrate, most hidden among the foliage. Han suspected Luke was not among the participants. Almost pitch dark, he realized if he was adventuring, he should take a torch. As he grabbed one of the two torches at the end of the staircase, he considered where Luke might have gone. The kid had been distant ever since they got out of Jabba's Palace, and Han had to admit he was concerned. Not _too_ concerned, just—well, concerned as a friend and all.

Besides, every time Han brought up the whole _brother_ revelation to Leia that evening, she shook her head and wouldn't elaborate. Maybe Luke would instead.

Beyond a copse of trees, a column of smoke large lifted up into the night sky, large enough to be visible and reflect torch light. Han followed it. When he came to the clearing, he found the embers of a large fire and—a funeral platform?—with Luke fishing through the embers. "Luke?"

He didn't turn, kept fishing through the rubble. After a long pause, he said, "Hi, Han."

"Hi. What are you doing?"

Luke did not reply. Instead, he continued to swift through the ash and remains, using his artificial hand, probably to avoid burning himself. "Luke, hey, what are you looking for?"

He must've found it, because with a heavy sigh, Luke stood up, a large plastic mask in his hands. He approached Han and as he came into the circle of torchlight, Han saw it: Darth Vader's helmet.

And Luke looked sad about it.

"I get the distinct impression that I'm missing a lot of background information here," Han said. He reached over and flicked a small piece of ember out of the breathing apparatus. "I'm really hoping someone can fill me in on what's going on, and why you and Leia are acting so melancholy." 

Luke met his gaze and sighed. "There is just so much, it's hard to know where to begin."

Han rolled his shoulders back and placed the hand not holding a torch on his hip. "Want to start with how you and Leia are siblings?"

"Thats where she started?" Luke asked with a laugh. We walked over to a fallen log and motioned for Han to follow as he took a seat. He put Vader's helmet down beside him. "How did that come up?"

Han shrugged as he sat, spinning the torch in his hands. "Jealousy, I suppose. I came out last night after she disappeared from the party and I found her talking to you. She was upset and wanted to be alone, said she couldn't tell me anything. I got frustrated, which I know is out of the ordinary for me. I'm usually so even tempered."

"Right, right, of course," Luke said. Han ignored the sarcasm.

"Anyway, I apologized and she hugged me, a solid hug, but said nothing. Then, earlier today we were treating wounds and looked up to watch the Death Star explode. I assured her you weren't on that thing, trying to be supportive. Leia agreed with me that no, you weren't, because she could feel it."

Luke smiled at that and nodded, but stayed quiet.

"I asked her if she loved you, she said yes. I, being the chivalrous gentleman that I am, promised not to stand in the way when you came back. She laughed at me and said you were her brother before kissing me." Han rubbed his chin and looked over at him. "I seem to recall Leia full-on kissing you on the lips once and you looking mighty happy about it. Not to mention the fact that I was also there when you two _met_. Maybe you could help a guy out and put the details together?"

Luke nodded and straightened his back. "It's confusing, and I don't have all the answers, either."

"Try me, kid." Han focused on the torch, rather than on Luke. He didn't feel the need to stare at him, and suspected Luke appreciated it.

"All right. So, Leia is my sister," Luke started. "Obi-Wan told me on Dagobah, when I went back to see Yoda last week. No, that's not accurate. Yoda hinted that I have a sibling, and when I asked Obi-Wan, he said it was my twin sister, and then I figured it out."

Han furrowed and raised his eyebrows. "Yoda? And Obi-Wan? As in Kenobi?"

"Yeah."

"When did you meet Kenobi?"

Luke tilted his head at him. "As a kid on Tatooine?"

"Why haven't you ever told me you know Obi-Wan Kenobi? I've always wanted to meet him."

"You did meet him. In Mos Eisley. We chartered the Falcon, remember? You called him an 'old fossil.'"

"Huh?" Han scratched the back of his head and tried to piece that together. Obi-Wan Kenobi was a name he knew. Stars, it was a name the entire galaxy knew, because he was easily among the best generals of the Clone Wars. To imagine the courageous risk-taker he grew up watching on holos turned into the man he took to Alderaan did not make any sense. And how did he go this long without knowing that? "Actually, no. Hold up. You said you talked to him last week. We watched him die on the Death Star years ago."

"Oh, he visited me as a Force ghost."

Han blinked. "Right."

"You know what? It's not important." Luke brushed off the conversation with a wave of his hand. "The sibling reveal actually wasn't the big reveal."

"It wasn't?"

"No. It wasn't." Luke swallowed and looked back at Han. "While on Cloud City, before I knew what had happened to you, I went to confront Vader."

Han nodded and looked over to Luke's mechanical hand. That part, at least, had been part of his briefing on the Falcon while returning to the fleet. It was hard not to notice, considering when Luke's hand got blasted on Tatooine, circuits appeared instead of blood. "Right, and you lost the hand. Leia and Lando filled me in."

"Right. Well, what I hadn't told anyone before I told Leia last night was—he was my father."

Han frowned and tried to process this, taking a deep breath and sitting back. He and Luke had never really spent any time discussing their parentage, where they came from. Han was aware that he grew up with his aunt and uncle, but he had never really delved into it or asked what happened to his parents. "Hang on, kid." He paused, trying to come up with an appropriate question. "What?"

Luke laughed, though without humor, and shook her head. "I know. I can hardly believe it myself. I didn't, not really, until Yoda confirmed it. My aunt and uncle had always told me my parents died at the end of the Clone Wars. Obi-Wan informed me, the day we met you, that my father was a Jedi and Vader betrayed and murdered him. And then Vader himself tells me he is my father?" Luke shook his head and trailed off, his hand reaching over to the helmet.

Han focused on the burial fire embers for a moment. It was mostly just a pile of ash, and the few embers still glowing did appear to only be wood. He hadn't really thought about the Clone Wars in years, a part of his childhood so totally erased by the cruelty of the Empire and everything that came with it. He remembered the Jedi, like Kenobi, fighting as generals. At the time, he just thought of them as cool—clone commanders with brightly colored lightsabers leading this perfect-looking army into battle. He watched the nightly holos just to see cool Jedi tricks. He didn't connect them to the Force religion; they were just beings who could do cooler things than he could. And there were two in particular he heard about the most, the generals most likely to take the crazy chances. One was Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the other— "Anakin Skywalker."

Luke looked at him, frowning. "Yes, he was my father."

Han shook his head and smoothed a hand back through his hair. "I haven't though about Anakin in a very long time, but I used to worship the guy. Right before the end of the war, he was on a mission with Kenobi to save the Chancellor, who had been kidnapped by Count Dooku, a Separatist leader. They had to do all this crazy cool stuff like climb an elevator shaft or something. There was no footage of that, but I do remember footage of an astromech knocking out a legion of battle droids. Come to think of it, that droid looked like Artoo."

Luke brought his thumb up to his mouth and chewed on his nail as he said, "I didn't realize you paid that much attention to the Clone Wars as a kid."

"By then I was nearly ten," Han said, shrugging. "Our nightly footage of Jedi and the war were exciting entertainment. I loved watching it. And makes it that much harder to understand how the Clone Wars hero I watched could have become Vader."

"I suspect how it happened would answer so many questions," Luke mused. He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his thighs. "Vader died because he saved me, Han. In the end, I got through to him, and my father killed the Emperor to save me. Darth Vader did that. And if after twenty years of being the man he was he made that decision, I don't understand how he became Darth Vader in the first place."

"I don't really remember when Vader showed up," Han admitted. "It was after we had the Empire, but he wasn't talked about on holos much at first. He got his reputation for cold-blooded torture a few years after the Empire had begun."

"I was always scared of him on holos," Luke said quietly.

"We all were. Anyone with any sense would've been."

"And yet." Luke tossed the helmet around in his hands, taking out his nervous energy on it. "He asked me to take the mask off, as he died. He was horribly pale, scarred, looked nothing like me. I'm glad he was able to do something good before his death, but I would have rather he'd survived. I have so many questions that I suspect only he could have answered."

"Like?"

"Like who was my mother. Is she alive, too? Were they married, considering Jedi weren't supposed to marry? Did he even know she was pregnant? If she is dead, how did she die? Where's her family? Do I have other relatives out there? Do Leia and I have other siblings? How did I end up on Tatooine with my aunt and uncle, but Leia ended up Alderaan? I don't know the answers to ANY of it. Two truths have only created dozens upon dozens of other questions."

Being his usual, terrible-at-comforting self, Han wasn't really sure how to help, but he did touch his shoulder. "That is a lot of questions." He shook his head, realizing that was not the least bit helpful. "I'm sure there are ways to find the truth, and I suspect you'll get help." He paused. "Why did you come back out here?"

"Well, I told myself it was to make sure the fire was out. But I think I was hoping for answers."

"Did you find any?"

"Yes, but surprisingly they all came from you."

"Yeah, well. I have my moments." Han grabbed the helmet out of his hands. "Listen, kid. This will not give you answers. This is just the melted remains of an evil man. This was not your father. Forget about Vader and focus on finding Anakin Skywalker, all right?"

"But—"

"No." Han stood, staring down at the deformed piece of plastic before tossing it back into the ashes. Though barely keeping the torch straight as he took aim, he was pleased to see the the helmet land in the pile and blow sparks into the air as it landed. "Now let's go," he said. Once Luke was standing beside him, he nudged between his shoulders to guide him back to the camp. "Didn't know I was going to be the sensible one giving advice tonight," Han muttered as they got back into the trees.

Luke laughed. "On occasion, you do prove to be the most sensible among us."

"And isn't that a scary thought."

They laughed together as they returned to the treehouses. Han knew that Luke's laughter wasn't entirely genuine, but it was a start, and the kid would eventually get better. When they rejoined the party, so had Leia, and Han saw something different as they embraced this time. They weren't just siblings, they had a journey to complete together, and Han was probably a part of it, whether he wanted to be or not.


End file.
